The 15 Biggest Failures of the American Public Education System

When the final bell rings on the last day of school, you’re probably ready to rush home and throw your bookbag in the closet until fall. As a high school student, summer is a time to relax and to take a break from studying, but if you plan to apply for college, you might want to consider using some of your summer break to boost your college application.

You don’t necessarily need to jump right into summer school, but there are some simple things you can do this summer to improve your college application. Keep reading to find out what they are.

Why Is It Important to Stay Busy Over the Summer?

Though it may be tempting to spend the whole summer sleeping in and spending time with friends, it’s important to keep one eye on your future. Your brain can definitely use a break when it comes to studying and stress, but don’t shut it down entirely for the next two months.

Staying busy and productive over the summer is important for a number of reasons. When it comes to college applications, however, it will show admissions officers that you’re serious about your education and your future. Something as simple as taking a summer school course or volunteering with a local charity shows a commitment to academic excellence and depth of character. Everything you do is an opportunity to show college admissions who you really are.

In addition to making yourself look better on a college

Choosing which colleges to apply to is a big decision and not one that should be made lightly. You have to consider factors such as class size, location, degree options, student-teacher ratios, and more. With so many options to choose from, things can get pretty stressful.

In all the flurry of trying to pick a college, you might forget about something even more important – college admissions exams. It doesn’t matter what schools you want to apply to if you don’t do well enough on your college admissions exams or, worse if you forget to take them entirely.

The SAT and the ACT are the two most popular college admissif2009 reportons exams, and both are universally accepted by colleges in the United States. If you’re like many high school students, you may be wondering what the difference is between these two tests and which one you should take, if not both of them. Keep reading to learn what every high schooler needs to know about these exams and how to prepare for them.

How Important Are Test Scores for College Admissions?

Most colleges and universities in the United States consider an applicant’s score on college admissions exams like the SAT and ACT. Many schools have a minimum score they will accept, though some schools weigh these scores more heavily than others. Though each school is different, the fact remains – scoring well on college admissions exams is important.

Though you should definitely do your best on the SAT

Friends come and go over the years. If you think back over the course of your life, you can probably name different friends from different time periods. You may even have certain friends that you rarely see but, when you do, it seems like no time has passed at all. Unfortunately, few of us are lucky enough to still be friends with the people we knew in college, let alone grade school.

Though it is normal for friendships to change over time, the people you spend your time with impact your life in more ways than you realize. Having a good friend by yourself can make the stresses of life seem a little more bearable. Friendships can even cancel out some of the difficulties of life.

In fact, a new study revealed that the friendships children make during the early years of school can actually offset the negative consequences of bad parenting. Keep reading to learn more about the importance of friendships for grade school students and how to cultivate them.

This TEDTalk discusses the importance of childhood friendships.

Why Are Friendships Important for Children?

When it comes to early childhood development, many parents focus on things like a healthy diet, regular exercise, and stimulating activities. Early childhood friendships are easily overlooked as something that has an influence on a child’s development, but they are more important than you may realize.

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The results of a new study show that private school education may be no better than public school education. Keep reading to learn more about this study and to learn how to make the right choice between private and public school education for your child.

The world of education is ever-changing but opinions about private versus public school will always be at odds. It is a common assumption that private school education is of a higher quality than public school education, but the results of a new study suggest that this may not be the case.

After reviewing data from over 1,000 students, researchers from the University of Virginia found no evidence to suggest that students from low-income families and children enrolled in urban schools benefited more from private than from public school education. These results are particularly relevant as legislators fight to move toward a more privatized public education system. They also make it clear that the assumption that public schools are inferior to private schools is wrong.

The fact of the matter is that some schools are simply better than others, but the results of this new study suggest that the factors once thought to play the largest role in determining the quality of public versus private education may not be so important. In order to better understand the results of this study, let’s first take a closer look at some of the supposed benefits of private versus public school.

This video compares and contrasts public